The present invention relates to a method for creating textures applied to images displayed on image creating apparatuses applied to video game machines which use, for example, a cassette recording medium or the like in which an optical disc, a magnetic disc, or a semiconductor memory containing program data, is used, and to texture creating methods therefor and recording media containing texture creating and recording programs.
Many game systems have heretofore been proposed, such as a system comprised of a home-use game console and a television monitor, a commercial-use game machine, and a system comprised of a personal computer or work station, a display, and a sound output device.
These game systems each generally include a player-operated controller, a recording medium containing game-program data, a central processing unit (CPU) for performing control for the generation of sound and images based on the game-program data, a processor for generating images, a processor for generating sound, a monitor for displaying images, and a speaker for outputting the generated sound. In many cases, the types of recording medium include a compact-disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), a semiconductor memory, and a cassette having a built-in semiconductor memory.
In these game systems, in general, it is often necessary to create various textures, comprised, for example, of distinctive or recognizable patterns having various color components. Conventionally, such textures are created and stored employing a bitmap rendering. These textures can be used, for example, to represent wrinkles and other surface textures or when depicting and distinguishing various ones of the player characters in a video game, for example, by configuration of different team uniform designs. In general, three-dimensional models, as objects displayed on a screen, are composed of polygons as a plurality of two-dimensional virtual triangular or square figures. The textures, conventionally comprised of two-dimensional image data, are applied to these displayed polygons. Normally, the textures to be applied to the polygons are separately set and stored beforehand in a memory as bitmap data.
Depending on the complexity of the texture and the number of colors involved, storing such bitmap data for a particular texture can require the use of a significant volume of memory and, if custom textures are to be selected by a player in advance of game play, creation of such textures can be generally inefficient and difficult to be implemented by the player.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a texture creating apparatus for permitting the creation of a texture to be displayed, a texture creating method therefor, and a computer-readable recording medium containing a texture creating program.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a texture creating apparatus for displaying a 3D rendering of a character incorporating such texture in a manner which reduces the required memory associated with the storage of the texture, while concomitantly simplifying the creation process of a custom texture, a texture creating method therefor, and a computer-readable recording medium containing a texture creating program.
Briefly stated, a method is provided by which a texture is created by layering previously stored patterns and by applying a desired color to each layered pattern. The patterns are layered into an accumulation buffer which converts the layered patterns of selected colors into a bitmap image representative of the particular texture created by the layering and color selection process. The texture drawing is temporarily stored in the accumulation buffer, and is later mapped onto a three-dimensional model or character image for display.
In accordance with an embodiment of the invention, the method of creating textures can also store the created textures as texture information comprised of individual layer and color data, rather than as bitmap information, thereby reducing the amount of required memory. In an advantageous embodiment, each of a plurality of patterns correspond to a particular identifying number, or identifier, such that the layer data consists merely of a particular pattern number, saving considerably on required storage. Further reduction in required memory is advantageously achieved by saving color data associated with each pattern number as a coordinate set on a two dimensional color lookup table, or color chart, rather than as a true RGB value.
In accordance with an embodiment of the invention, an apparatus for practice of the above method, advantageously incorporated as part of a game machine, permits a game player to custom select textures in advance of game play. For example, one such apparatus may permit the player or players to select a distinctive team uniform, badge or logo which will be displayed during game play to distinguish one player""s game characters from an opponent""s characters.